Noble To The End
by elfmaiden4legs
Summary: Before he leaves for the last and final time The Doctor leaves Wilfred one last parting gift for his grandaughter! Years later Donna's husband finally returns to her what was once hers, and Donna remembers!


**Noble To The End**

**Hey guys, well this is only my second Doctor Who fic... yes I know, I can't believe it myself as I absolutely love this show! But I couldn't just leave it with Donna never again able to remember the Doctor and all that they shared and so this fic just came to me, and had to be written! I hope you enjoy what you read, and please don't forget to REVIEW! Thanks! :D**

"How're you feeling?" The ageing old man, John Smith enquired of his wife as he entered the small bedroom, shakily carrying a tray of tea – strong and sweet, and biscuits – digestives coated in think milk chocolate, just the way she had always liked them ever since they had first met, with gnarled, arthritic hands.

Donna Noble sat up in bed, a contented smile curling her lips as she looked upon the man she loved affectionately. They'd been married nearly fifty years now, and everyday she still felt lucky to be with him… truly blest.

"Thank you dear." She winked. "But I'm fine."

She had no idea what had first attracted her to John all those years ago, when they had both been so much younger than they were now. Maybe it had been fate, but she hadn't remained a temp her entire life. After the stories of 'Invasion Day' emerged, something inside of her had told her she may be better suited for a life in Military Defence… and so for many years this had been the chosen path she'd trodden.

John Smith… the name had sounded strangely familiar to her, a faint trace of recognition from the moment that he had first introduced himself to her… curiously endearing. Although she had never been able to explain the strange connection she had felt towards a man with this strangely familiar name… they had however at least been happy.

As John now placed the tray of tea things down on the bedside table however and set himself down on the bed beside his wife he smiled.

A moments silence ensued, each content to simply sit in the others company, enjoying the peaceful silence between them.

"I have something to tell you." He finally explained however, wrapping one affectionate arm around his wife's shoulders as he said so.

"What is it?" Donna asked, and with this her husband, after rummaging in his pocket, which took only a split second of his time, pulled from within it a small silver key.

Donna frowned.

"Many years ago your Grandfather told me to give you this." He said, placing it in the palm of her hands. As he did so Donna was surprised and recoiled to see the small silver object glowing a rusty orange colour as she grasped it between her fingers… finally when she eventually released her grip upon it again finding it was warm.

"He said however not to give it to you until I thought you were ready." He continued. "Because there would always be certain consequences to returning this key to you."

"But I've never seen this key before in my life." Donna frowned, as she passed it through her fingers, investigating every fine detail of its formation.

"He said that it was given to him by a man called the Doctor…" John continued carefully, as he observed his wife's reaction, "and that it once belonged to you."

"The Doctor?" Donna asked, "Doctor Who? John are you having me on?" She laughed.

"He didn't say anything else, only to tell you that it was the key to the TARDIS… that's what the Doctor once told him… and one day you would remember."

"TARDIS?" Donna then gasped suddenly however in dawning realisation. "I remember." She smiled.

John smiled with her at this, gripping his wife's hand tenderly as he watched a cascade of long forgotten memories come flooding back to her, memories which she deserved to have returned to her now. "What was it like?" He asked.

"Magnificent!" Donna smiled. "He took me to see the universe. Stars, planets, entire solar systems mankind had not discovered yet… still hasn't! And the people… I met Agatha Christie!" She suddenly squealed excitedly in a like her husband hadn't heard in too many years. But then Donna's face suddenly set solemn, and her expression reflecting those darker, more morose memories, which came from a time journeying with the Doctor. "He saved the world so many times over." She said. "So many times… and yet nobody ever knew his name. Just a traveller, passing through, that's what he used to say… a lonely traveller. I was going to stay with him forever." With this however tears welled in Donna's eyes, and as she choked back the emotion felt during her final moments at the Doctor's side, John continued.

"Your Grandfather also told me something else when he gave me that key." He explained. "He told me that the Doctor had said that it was you who saved the universe from the Darlek's… and that out there, there are entire planets singing songs in your name… in your honour."

"Darleks?" Donna frowned, before that too seemed to come flooding back to her. "Of course." She smiled. "But it wasn't just me. There was a whole team of us… the Doctor's Army." She laughed. "Captain Jack, he was hot, although not as hot as you, Head of Torchwood Cardiff, ever heard of Torchwood? No I don't suppose you have. RoseTylerMarthaJonesSarahJaneSmithMickySmithdon'tthinktheywererelatedthoughJackieTyler." Suddenly Donna's eyes went wide as she gasped for breath. "Sorry." She frowned. "Don't know what came over me."

"I think do." John smiled with a small regretful sigh at this.

"I wonder what became of them all though?" Donna mused, "And why couldn't I remember? Why did the Doctor leave me behind?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" John asked, and with this the bedroom door creaked slowly open to reveal a tall, slender, strapping, young man, with a mop of disorganiosed hair and wearing a lavender suit standing in its way.

"Doctor!" Donna suddenly gasped. Hardly daring to believe what she was seeing before her.

"Donna Noble indeed!" He beamed back in response as he leapt into the room, exuberating the boundless energy of the character Donna once knew.

"You haven't aged a day." She observed.

"Ah…well." The Doctor remarked, rubbing one hand uncertainly through his mop of toffee hair. "It's been fifty years for you since we last saw each other, only yesterday to me."

"But…you…you wiped my memories." Donna faltered, after a moment of taking in the figure of the man now standing before her, a man she hadn't seen in more than five decades, and until now had even forgotten the existence of. "Why would you do that?"

"To save you Donna." The Doctor sighed. "You saved the universe from the Darlek fleet, but absorbed Time Lord energy in the process. No human being can withstand that and survive, it's never happened before… it was killing you Donna. The only way I could save you was to draw the energy from you into me, which meant wiping your memories in the process. If you ever remembered anything, of me, of the TARDIS, of the places we went to, of the things that we did, any of it, the knowledge of that would tear you apart."

"But now… what about now?" Donna asked.

With this the Doctor simply looked at her and nodded. "You're dying Donna." He explained. "There's nothing I can do… I'm sorry."

"I know." She smiled, after a moments pause, during which time everything which had transpired in the preceding few minutes was only just beginning to sink in.

"How about one last trip though?" The Doctor smiled after a moment, offering his hand to Donna as she turned to face John. "If you're up to it." He added.

"I love you sweetheart." Her husband squeezed his wife's hand affectionately as he planted a loving kiss on her forehead.

"I love you to." She smiled, stroking his cheek tenderly with this. "…and thank you."

That day Donna saw the universe in a new light, thriving, because as the Doctor never failed to point out, she had saved them all. Planets, moons, stars, some she knew, some she had never seen before, all still here, still breathing, still growing, because of her, and for the first time in years she looked and felt thirty-four again.

…and that evening she fell asleep knowing she would wake up to those memories in the morning, memories which had been hers all along. She had no idea how long it would take them before they destroyed her, the Doctor hadn't said, but she couldn't really care.

All that mattered to Donna now was that she had the Doctor back, she would have welcomed death in order to spend just a few more moments with him all those years ago, and she wasn't going to loose him again now.


End file.
